The one I am playing now is Guitar Hero, which is a hell of a lot of fun. I ACTUALLY BOUGHT Guitar Hero II first, because I thought it had cooler songs on it, and it would also allow you to play the bass lines, which appealed to me a great deal, since I actually play bass.
I�m not here today to discuss my game habits, not my personal favorites. I wanna talk about the game companies themselves, and why they feel the need to fuck us every chance they get.
Why does it happen that every time they design and release a new and �better� system, they have to stop making games for the old ones? That�s bullshit. Not everyone can afford the newest systems, especially when they cost six hundred motherfucking dollars. That�s ridiculous to begin with, and the people who actually pay that should be shot. Because then the companies like Nintendo and Sony and Microsoft know that there ARE people who will pay that, and they won�t stop with the ludicrous prices.
I only finally purchased a PS2 less than a year ago. I already owned an XBOX, and I certainly wasn�t going to pay a lot of money for two of those systems. For the most part, it would be redundant. It sucks that they have like 85% of the games out there in common, but the other 15% is what makes people have the need to own more than one system. And these companies know this, and put more effort into the games that other companies won�t have, to entice you to their system.
It was a hell of a lot easier back in the early 80�s. You had Atari, which had EVERYTHING, and then the cheap knockoffs. Some of them technically may have been better, as far as the systems themselves go, but Atari was the pioneer, the innovator when it came to a lot of this shit, and thus almost everyone had one of those. The only thing Atari was really competing with was itself. The Atari 2600 was a HUGELY popular game system, even though it was pretty limited in what it could do. The Atari 5200 was FAR superior, but came out too late, after almost every household in America had the other one. The games were NOT compatible, and the 5200 flopped. This was probably because the 2600 was still readily available, and they were still making games for it. At least until Nintendo came along and fucking crushed them.
But Nintendo may have been the ones to start this current trend of fucking over the customers who keep you in business. When the Nintendo Entertainment System came out, it was by far the greatest thing that had come down the pike, and it lasted for a long time, gaining almost as much popularity as the early Atari system. It was everywhere, and there were so many games available for it that it was ridiculous.
But then came along the Super Nintendo, and within a year or so, it was almost impossible to find any games for the older system, despite the sheer number of people who owned that original one. And people were forced to either play the old games over and over again, or pony up an assload of money to get the new system, and then start getting the games for it all over again. I understand from a business standpoint why they would do this, but it�s still a shitty way to treat their customers. Offering a choice would be far better customer service, showing that they actually care about their customers, and not just how badly they can assrape them for their own gain.
But no, they don�t do this. They want to bend us all over to increase their own profits. And it continues today. There is another Guitar Hero game coming out soon, Guitar Hero III. It will NOT be available on the PS2 system. Or the XBOX or any system that has been out for more than a year. You can only get it for the newest systems, the PS3, XBOX 360, or Wii. Thank you guys for at least buying me dinner before doing this.
I�m not buying a fuckin� PS3. I�m not spending six hundred fucking dollars, and then another hundred bucks for the game, just to play the one game that I want. And it�s insane that Sony thinks I should do that if I want to play this one game. I know, they aren�t forcing me to play the game. If I don�t want to spend that kind of money, then I simply don�t play the game. But�I have already given Sony a LOT of cash for both my original Playstation, and my PS2, along with the games for those. It�s greed pure and simple, not business that is driving them to suck more cash from customers wallets.
The way I see it, they owe me the opportunity to play the newer games on the system I already own. And I�m not even asking them to program the games for each system separately. I know they require different programming. But there�s no reason I can think of why they cannot offer some sort of adapter that would allow the games to be played universally on the system I already own. Well, no technological reason that I can think of. Only greedy ones.
On top of that, there was absolutely no need to introduce these new systems yet. I believe there should be at the absolute MINIMUM ten years between game systems. Probably longer. There�s just no good justification for how quickly these companies replace their systems. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the Playstation 2, thus no need for the PS3 to come out before I have grandchildren. And Sony has shit built into this fucking thing that they have insinuated won�t be needed or even able to be used for another five to ten years. They�ll be on the fucking PS5 by then, so what�s the point of this? Oh right, there isn�t one.
And how about the price of the games themselves? That�s another thing that�s goddamn outrageous. Fifty dollars or more for a game that will be pointless in a week because it�s that easy to beat. Oh � but it LOOKS so pretty on the new systems, right? Fuck that. Gimme Missile Command any day over 99.9% of the shit out there for these new systems. Sure, it�s just some crappy-looking square pixels floating around the screen, but you can play it over and over again, and it�s not boring. You haven�t already �beat� the game, so it�s still valid.
That�s another problem with so many games these days. They have a definite end, so re-playability is pretty much zero. I bought the Lego Star Wars II game for my XBOX, and beat the fucking thing in a week. It�s useless to me now. Yeah, it was fun while it lasted, but if I had to put a price tag on the fun level, I would say it was worth about ten dollars, not forty. I know there will be some people who read this and disagree with me, and that�s fine. If other people want to keep shelling out ridiculous amounts of cash just so they can say they have the latest version of something, that�s their business. But they have to understand when I get pissed because they are helping feed the greed that fucks up my chances of playing Guitar Hero 3.
And after all, that�s what�s really important here.